Rumor: Samsung to unveil new 8-inch Galaxy Note tablet next month

Now that CES is over, Samsung is gearing up for next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where the company is expected to unveil a brand new Galaxy Note tablet.

The Korea-based electronics firm will reportedly reveal its Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet, according to Samsung news blog Sam Mobile. The website doesn’t specify exactly where this information came from, but does provide a list of specifications for the device. Like most tablets, this rumored slate is expected to come in two flavors. One edition will feature 3G and Wi-Fi, and the other will be Wi-Fi only.

None of this information has been confirmed, but the alleged follow up to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 is expected to come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, a 4600 mAh battery, a 5-megapixel front facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. As for the display, we may be seeing a Super Clear LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Whether these specs turn out to be true or not, we can expect the tablet to come in the standard 16GB or 32GB variants.

This isn’t a drastic improvement from the current generation Galaxy Tab 7.7 in terms of tech specs, but it could prove to be an appealing alternative to Apple’s iPad Mini. It’s similar in size to Apple’s offering, allowing for more screen space than Google’s Nexus 7 or other smaller-sized slates. However, the alleged Galaxy Note 8.0 would come equipped with Samsung’s signature S-Pen stylus, offering a different set of features than Apple’s miniature iPad. In addition, since Samsung’s rumored tablet comes with Android 4.2 at launch, we can probably expect some of the recently announced Premium Suite features as well.

While Sam Mobile seems to have the scoop, its set of reported specs is missing one key piece of information. There was no mention of what kind of processor would power the device. We’re hoping that one of Samsung’s new quad-core Exynos chips will be inside, but we’ll have to wait until the Mobile World Congress to find out for sure.

If these rumors turn out to be true, Samsung will be adding yet another major player to the already saturated tablet industry. While an 8-inch Galaxy Note may not outsell the iPad Mini, offering the premium suite S Pen-enabled features on a miniature tablet would make sense for Samsung.

This isn’t the first time this device has made an appearance on the Web. Back in December, a device with the same model number, code name and specs appeared in the GLBenchmark’s database.